Portable electronic devices, such as mobile computing units, can be used to perform various operations that require movement between locations. For example, where merchandise or cargo—or other aggregations of transportable goods—are distributed throughout an area, whether in a retail environment or a warehouse, it can be useful to use a portable electronic device to record or discover the location of the goods. Thus, an operator can move among the goods and operate the portable electronic device to perform such operations.
A portable electronic device can be capable of discovering information regarding objects, including recording their location. Such information collection and recordation can be accomplished by a variety of operations. For example, a mobile RFID reader can perform RFID interrogation and record RFID response signals. As another example, a bar code scanner can be used to record a bar code for each object, such as during inventory operations.
To assist a user in comfortably manipulating a multi-function electronic device in performing such operations, a device or component can be coupled to the portable electronic device for easier use. In one example, a handle with a trigger can be coupled to a mobile computing device. The trigger can operate the mobile computing device to perform certain, such as RFID interrogation or bar code scanning, among others.
Handles commonly used in such applications typically have one or more features selected for use in an active environment. For example, the combined handle and mobile computing device is typically robust enough to survive a fall after an accidental drop by a user. One such feature is a magnetic switch activated by the trigger of the handle. In such a device, a magnet in the handle may be moved near the mobile computing device, which can have an activating device. When the magnet is sufficiently close to the activating device for its magnetic field to act in sufficient strength on the activating device, the activating device can be triggered. The magnetic switch, however, has certain disadvantages such as a lack of tactile feedback to the user in response to triggering.
Moreover, magnetic triggers are susceptible to various disadvantages inherent to producing a binary effect—the triggering or not triggering of the device by the user—with an analog device. For example, the magnetic strength of the magnet can vary between different magnetic switches, causing either false “fires” when a trigger is not activated, but the magnet approaches sufficiently close to the activating device for it to activate. Conversely, a weak magnet might be moved by mechanical manipulation of the operator into the correct position in proximity to the activating device, but the weaker field of the magnet may be insufficient to cause the activating device to activate.
Magnetic switches are sometimes used because they do not require a physical connection between the handle and mobile computing device beyond a mechanical coupling. Those handles and triggering assemblies which have such physical connections, such as electrical connections, can be susceptible to fluids, such as water, or dust particles or other contaminants entering the connecting apparatuses, or remaining thereon, or otherwise impairing the connection.